So, I’ve been watching a lot of Ninja Warrior. It’s a show that’s being imported on G4 from Japan, where its original name is Sasuke. If you’re new to the whole “interwebs” thing, and haven’t yet clicked the link it’s basically a four-stage obstacle course of absolute ludicrousness. In the 10 years that the show’s been running (18 iterations of the more-or-less biannual competition), only two people have ever cleared all four stages.

It’s absolutely incredible to watch. The first stage, you think, “Yeah, on a good day, with a couple weeks of training… I could probably do that.” The second stage is more, “Hm. Might take a couple months, but yeah, I suppose I might conceivably be able to handle that, too.” For me, that’s where it ends. The third stage, even if I trained for years, I’m not sure I could handle, and the fourth, though easily the simplest… the time limit is just absurd.

I think I get a lot of pleasure out of watching the show because it’s full of people doing things that frankly, on the surface, look almost impossible, and doing them in rapid succession. It’s just crazy. And the thing that really caps it off is that the people are really doing it because they really *want* to do it. The financial benefits of completing the course are minimal (~$17K) compared to most “gameshows” in the US. Maybe there’s notoriety, or some sponsorship involved, but it’s not a bunch of millionaires playing ball. These people have jobs, and do this for fun. That’s how it should be, IMO.

So, that’s motivating. Watching people really do crazy-assed things makes me want to be at least minimally capable of similar feats. I’m in no shape right now to do such things, and I’ve largely “fallen off the horse” since winning the competition with Klay. But the last week, I re-signed up for the Y (through work, which pays for it), went swimming, did pushups and squats one morning, and this evening, got back from a run – the first time I’ve run outdoors, quite possibly, since I used to run with my roommate in college. Recently, I’ve also very sporadically gone mountain biking with Alan, though that’s not regular enough to be called any sort of exercise “routine.”

Still, it feels *good* to be doing stuff. It’s quite easy to forget, given how sedentary my work generally is, because the inertia of a sedentary lifestyle is hard to overcome. But I definitely feel better when I get a little exercise.

The funny thing is that there are a couple people on Ninja Warrior that have been doing this for years. The regulars have shared this goal, and participated for *years* together. The camaraderie that comes from working towards a shared goal comes across on-screen. It’s strange – one of the things that Simon Cowell always tries to make a point of, on American Idol, is that whenever some contestant says, “Oh, we all love each other, and we all want each other to do well,” is that they *don’t*. There’s only one winner, and if you want to win, you don’t want *them* to win. The great thing about Sasuke is that I think everyone wants each other to win. Sure, they know it’s not likely to happen, given the difficulty, but it really feels like they’re genuinely cheering each other on.

That’s how I felt when I was competing in high school – either swimming, or triathlons, with my close friends. We tended not to compete in the same events, which was great, because it didn’t make winning an exclusive event, but even where there was overlap, we knew a winner today could be second tomorrow, and it kept us motivated, and willing to really push ourselves to the limit of what we were capable of at the time. I miss that feeling, honestly, and I’m not really sure where one finds that as an adult, with a job and a family.

Devotion to anything takes time. I’m devoted to my wife, and to a much lesser extent, I’m devoted to my job. (and Mobius) There’s probably not a lot of time left to squeeze in something else, though who knows? I waste a lot of time most days playing random games, or doing other stupid stuff. Writing blog posts and the like. 🙂

I hope one day that that sense of camaraderie and shared vision can come from work. That, clearly, would be ideal – where a bunch of friends work towards a common goal, and when we succeed, we all win together. Hell – it’s even shaping up that my closest friends all have relatively compatible talents. One day, we’ll be able to marshall those talents into something extraordinary. I know it’ll happen. It’s just a matter of time.